Gordon Russell Visiting Professorship

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ALUMNA IS FIRST WOMAN TO LEAD BIG ALASKA NATIVE ORGANIZATION

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 10/15/2016 - 16:09

BETHEL – After months of tension, discord and questions about its very viability from some of its Southwest Alaska member tribes, the region's leading Alaska Native nonprofit answered this week with a call for unity, a new power structure and for the first time, a woman in charge.

The Association of Village Council Presidents, made of 56 tribes in 48 villages throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, punctuated its annual convention in Bethel on Thursday with the naming of Vivian Johnson Korthuis as its first chief executive officer.

When financial troubles started to become apparent to AVCP leaders in August 2015, Korthuis, who grew up in the village of Emmonak, led the effort to turn the organization around, board members said.